NBC's Today Continues Blackout on Fast and Furious Controversy

By

Matthew Balan

June 20, 2012 - 5:06pm

NBC's Today kept up its complete omission of the Fast and
Furious gun-running controversy on Wednesday, even as a House committee
prepared to vote later in the day on whether to find Attorney General
Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. CBS This Morning stood among the Big Three morning newscasts in devoting a full report to the issue. ABC's Good Morning America gave only a 20-second news brief on the controversy.

Overall, NBC has punted on the story since December 2010, when the scandal first emerged. NBC Nightly News had its own blackout on Fast and Furious until June 12, 2012, when correspondent Kelly O'Donnell finally mentioned[1] "Congress's investigation of a failed operation that sent U.S. guns into Mexico" during a 30-second portion of a longer story on other matters. The issue hasn't been mentioned since on the evening newscast.

CBS This Morning
anchor Erica Hill introduced correspondent Nancy Cordes's report by
noting how "a House committee is due to vote today on finding Attorney
General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Holder has refused the
Oversight and Government Reform Committee's demand for documents from
the controversial 'Fast and Furious' gun-running operation." Cordes
highlighted during the segment that "Holder says there's no evidence of a
cover-up; that he's already provided 7,600 pages worth of documents;
that this is, essentially, a Republican fishing expedition."

On Good Morning America, news anchor Josh Elliott gave his sole news brief on Fast and Furious six minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour:

JOSH ELLIOTT: Meanwhile here at home, Attorney General Eric Holder
could be charged with contempt of Congress today. A House committee is
demanding more documents about the government's Fast and Furious
program, a failed sting operation that allowed weapons to get into the
hands of Mexican gangs. Holder calls the committee's threat to hold him in contempt pure politics.

The ABC morning actually hasn't been much better than its NBC counterpart, as they've have only given one other news brief [2]on the controversy over the past 18 months.

The full transcript of Nancy Cordes's report from Wednesday's CBS This Morning, which aired 15 minutes into the 7 am Eastern hour:

ERICA HILL: On Capitol Hill, a House committee is due to vote today on
finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Holder has
refused the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's demand for
documents from the controversial 'Fast and Furious' gun-running
operation, which was first exposed by CBS News. Committee chairman
Darrell Issa says a last-minute meeting on Tuesday went nowhere.

REP. DARRELL ISSA, (R), CALIFORNIA: It's, ultimately, the attorney
general who is the custodian of the documents we wish to receive, and
that's why the contempt cites him. We would hope that the President
would ask his attorney general to be more cooperative.

CHARLIE ROSE: Nancy Cordes is on Capitol Hill this morning. Nancy, what is happening here?

NANCY CORDES: Well, Charlie, what's happening is the Republicans say
that Holder is not giving them the documents they need to investigate
whether the Department of Justice covered up its involvement in 'Fast
and Furious', or tried to silence whistleblowers, after a U.S. Border
agent, Brian Terry, was killed in Arizona, and two guns that had been
walked as part of the program were found at the scene.

Attorney General Holder says there's no evidence of a cover-up; that
he's already provided 7,600 pages worth of documents; that this is,
essentially, a Republican fishing expedition. And so, he had an
ultimatum of his own for Issa: I'll give you more documents if you agree
to drop the subpoenas against me.

ERIC HOLDER, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I have to say, given the extraordinary
nature of the offer that we made, and given the extraordinary way in
which we have shared materials to date, that I think we are actually
involved more in political gamesmanship, as opposed to trying to get the
information they say they want.

CORDES: So unless someone blinks this morning, this contempt vote is
going to go ahead in the committee. If it passes, then it would go to
the House floor. If it passes in the House, it would come to the Senate.
But the Senate, Charlie and Erica, is controlled by Democrats, so it's
likely that the move would die there.

ROSE: Nancy Cordes, thank you so much.

[3]

— Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here[4].

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